Starter: Carrot & ginger soup with Guinness & treacle brown bread

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170C. To make the Guinness bread, mix all the dry ingredients together.

Heat the Guinness and treacle just enough to emulsify them. Pour into the dry ingredients with the buttermilk and mix thoroughly but do not over mix.

Brush a 1kg bread tin with vegetable oil. Pour in the bread mixture up to the ¾ mark.
Top with a sprinkling of brown sugar. Bake at for 1 hour, then remove from the tin and continue to bake for 10-15 minutes until cooked through and to allow the crust to dry out.
Leave to cool for at least 1 hour before cutting into slices.

To make the soup, melt the butter in a deep pan and add in the carrots, onions, celery and seasoning. Sweat until softened but without allowing the vegetables to pick up any colour. Add in the potatoes and then stir in the stock. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and continue to cook until all the vegetables are tender.

Add the coriander to the soup and blitz with a hand blender until smooth. Season to taste and ladle into bowls. Serve with slices of the Guinness Bread and some butter.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200C. For the mash, bake the potatoes on a bed of rock salt for about 1 hour until tender, then cut the potatoes in half and scoop out the flesh. Mash until smooth. Heat the milk and beat into the mashed potatoes until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Keep warm.

To roast the plums, cut the plums in half and remove the stones, then place in a buttered roasting tin, cut side up. Drizzle over the honey and orange juice and roast for 20-25 minutes until cooked through and lightly charred, basting half way through.

Lightly score the skin of each duck breast into a diamond pattern with the tip of a sharp knife, taking care not to cut through to the meat. Season with salt.

Heat a large heavy-based ovenproof frying pan (you may need two depending on their size) until it is quite hot. Add the duck breasts, skin side down, lower the heat to medium and cook for about 3–4 minutes, until the skin is crisp and golden brown.

Turn the breasts over and drizzle a little honey over each one, then tuck around the thyme sprigs. Place them in the oven and roast for another 5 minutes, or a little longer if you don’t like your duck too pink.

Pour away all of the excess fat from the pan. Add the honey and leave it to bubble away, turning the duck breasts occasionally for 1–2 minutes, until they are nicely glazed. Remove the glazed duck breasts from the pan on to a warm plate and leave to rest in a warm place.

To make the jus return the pan that you’ve cooked the duck in to the heat. Pour in the wine and bring to the boil, scraping the bits off the bottom of the pan. Then add the stock and reduce by half. Whisk in the butter and season to taste.

Spoon some of the red wine sauce on to each warmed plate and arrange the fine green beans on top. Carve the duck breasts into slices and place on the beans. Put a turned out ramekin of creamy mash alongside each one with a roasted plum. Garnish with thyme sprigs to serve.

Ingredients:

For the mash:

1kg large Rooster potatoes

rock salt, for cooking

100ml milk

50g butter, diced

For the plums:

3 large ripe plums

butter, for greasing

1 tbsp honey

juice of 1 small orange

For the duck:

6 x 175g Peking duck breasts, well trimmed (preferably Thornhill)

2 tbsp honey

4 fresh thyme sprigs, extra to garnish

For the red wine jus:

200ml white wine

400ml veal stock

40g unsalted butter, chilled and diced

steamed fine green beans, to serve

Dessert: Millionaire’s shortbread with a coconut hemisphere

Method:

Method:

To make the pastry, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs and then stir in the sugar and salt. Mix in the egg yolk being careful not to overwork the pastry. If you find that the mix is too dry, add a drop of milk to help bring it together, although the chances are you won't need to.

Lay a sheet of clingfilm on a work surface and place the pastry on top. Cover with another sheet of clingfilm, roll lightly to flatten, then leave to rest in the fridge for at least an hour to firm up..

Line 8 x 10cm non-stick tartlet tins greased pastry tin with the chilled pastry. Return to the fridge for another hour to allow the pastry to rest.

Preheat the oven to 190C. Line each tartlet tin with parchment paper and baking beans. Arrange them on a large baking sheet and bake blind until golden brown. Remove the tartlets from the oven and leave to cool completely. Remove the beans and paper and then carefully take the pastry shells out of the tartlet tins.

To make the caramel, put the sugar, water and glucose syrup together in a heavy-based pan. Bring to the boil and allow to boil until golden brown. Pour in the cream and then stir until smooth.

Fill each pastry shell with the caramel and then allow to set in the fridge for 4 hours.

Once the caramel is set make the chocolate ganache. Place chocolate in a large mixing bowl. Bring cream to the boil in a small pan and then add the vanilla pod. Pour the hot cream, through a sieve, over chocolate. Stir until smooth and creamy in texture. Leave to cool. Remove the vanilla pod.

Pour the chocolate ganache over the caramel filling and set aside for about 2 hours to set. Sprinkle with desiccated coconut on top of each Millionaire’s shortbread and arrange on plates to serve.